Dowell Elementary School
- Type: New Elementary & Kindergarten Addition
- Size/Area: 71,177 SF
- Owner: Calvert County Public Schools
- Location: 12680 HG Trueman Road, Lusby, MD 20657
SEI
has a history with Dowell Elementary School in Calvert County, MD starting with
designing the original 68,192 SF facility in 1998 and then later performing a
kindergarten addition in 2007. The facility features classroom clusters around
a triangular teacher work area serving grades K-5. The work area provided
resource and storage as well as a centralized point within every pod to support
team teaching and supervision. SEI isolated the activity areas such as the art
and music suite, gymnasium, and cafetorium from the instructional areas to
minimize distractions. While the facility has all the common programs of an
elementary school, the main defining design element of this building was the
media center which uses a large, beautiful skylight with translucent panels
that created a volume space and bathes the students and staff with natural
light.